‘Pan Am’ Episode Order Cut, But ABC Says Show Isn’t Cancelled

Is ABC’s ambitious retro airline soap “Pan Am” cancelled or not? All signs point to “yes,” as the Magic 8 Ball might say, but ABC says just the opposite.

One of the show’s stars, Karine Vanasse, tweeted the bad news earlier this afternoon: “Well, we received THE call, #PanAm is only coming back for one more episode after Christmas. But up to the end, we’ll give it our all !” This would indicate that, after its 14th episode, the show is done.

But TVLine followed up with ABC, and the network told them that, yes, the show will shut production after the 14th episode, but “A decision about a second season will be made in May.”

That doesn’t make us any more confident that “Pan Am” will be coming back. Usually a rookie show getting its episode order cut pretty much means doom. But perhaps ABC wants to keep its options open, in case the campy “GCB” fails in that timeslot. It certainly has surprised us in the recent past — not even the people working on “Happy Endings” expected to see a second season, for example, and now it’s going strong on Wednesdays.